Virtual Reality in Tech Classrooms

Learning Engagement Principles

1. Social Engagement
   

The social engagement in this video is the actual act of socializing for these particular students. They are learning virtually, which concludes that they are perhaps home or not physically attending a brick and mortar building. This leaves the student with a lack of social interaction. The participation in the virtual classroom can be seen as a co-curricular activity. “Co-curricular activities are typically, but not always, defined by their separation from academic courses.” Outside of the instructor’s planned lessons, the students have the opportunity to collaborate with their fellow classmates. This assists with making the environment one that is conducive to learning.

2. Emotional Engagement

Because of what we are facing globally with the current pandemic, emotional engagement has possibly suffered tremendously and that could be correlated directly to the lack of social engagement for students. Attendance at a school building allows for interaction outside of the family unit. By utilizing virtual reality, educators are able to fulfill aspects of social engagement thus making contributions to the learner’s emotional engagement. “The basic theory is that students will be more likely to succeed if at least one adult in the school is meeting with a student regularly, inquiring about academic and non-academic issues, giving her advice, and taking an interest in her out-of-school life, personal passions, future aspirations, and distinct learning challenges and needs.”

3. Intellectual Engagement

According to the glossary of education reform,“To increase student engagement in a course or subject, teachers may create lessons, assignments, or projects that appeal to student interests or that stimulate their curiosity.” The use of intellectual engagement in this video gave the student multiple opportunities to participate in the instruction as well as add their own creative influence. If nothing more than creating their avatar for the virtual classroom, they were allotted the opportunity to impose their own creative point of view which possibly leaves them open to the wonderment of “what are we doing next?” That curiosity is an awesome segue for the instructor to approach the learner with an open, willing mind.

Student Engagement Definition. (2016, February 18). Retrieved from https://www.edglossary.org/student-engagement/

https://abc11.com/unc-virtual-reality-remote-learning-steven-king/6202031/

In this modern time, the world finds itself in with social distancing guidelines and shelter in place orders in effect; educators are shifting their thinking to develop creative ways to engage learners. How do you keep your students safe while still engaging them with an equivalent level of interaction as a traditional in-person environment? This question is just one of the many questions the COVID-19 pandemic has left educators with, and one instructor at the University of North Carolina has an answer, Virtual Reality. When UNC decided to move all of its classes virtual, Professor Steven King, mailed each of his emerging technologies students an Oculus VR System and set up a virtual classroom for his students to log into each week. Looking into the effectiveness of the use of Virtual Reality in learning environments, one can find very positive results for engagement and learning objective comprehension.

Learning in Virtual Reality

Keeping the Classroom

Normalcy is one of the keys that instructor King tried to instill in his environment, with whiteboards and screens. "They put on the headset each week for class and they're transported into the VR classroom" (King, 2020, 0:43) This sense of normalcy has allowed King to keep the emotional engagement of his students though this pandemic. His students are experiencing first hand how emerging technology, like Virtual Reality, can be used to overcome the physical restrictions and limitations caused by the pandemic. This experience is exciting for his students and their curiosity to learn more, thus causing them to engage due to this increased excitement. Each of the students interviewed in the video segment was excited about using the new virtual reality system for one reason or another, but all with the outcome of getting to attend class in this new environment as opposed to using existing platforms like Zoom.

Control to Confidence

A VR environment, when used correctly, can help students feel more in control of their learning, which leads to the learner being a more active learner. "[S]tudents controlled their own learning pace and were actively involved in the learning activities because they made their own instructional decisions, gained experience, and were responsible for the outcome of those decisions." (Ogbuanya & Onele, 2018, pg. 15) When learners are more active, they are engaged, and the learning begins to become intrinsically based aligning with their own learning goals. This movement of the learning, so the learner is intrinsically invested, gives the learner the control they desire as well as the confidence they require to keep learning more advanced concepts. As the learner advances through the material, the learner is motivated to keep advancing not through rewards or gold stars but though the hunger for the knowledge presented.

VR for Less

While nothing beats a fully functioning laboratory with the ability to simulate real-world issues, not everyone has access to these kinds of facilities. "Nigerian universities lacked some of the facilities for optimum laboratory practice." (Ogbuanya & Onele, 2018, pg.14) Also, some non-profit schools with limited budgets cannot afford the equipment needed to simulate these real-world scenarios. Virtual Reality allows the gap of the have and have-nots to become more of a reality than the dream it was some five years ago. When you look at how VR can simulate what previously could only be accomplished physically with sophisticated equipment, it is pretty astonishing. Learners are continually asking for the ability for hands-on time with the equipment. When we can, it makes a big difference in their comprehension of the material that is covered. Their attention is more acute than with theory instruction alone and the ability to use Virtual Reality to compound comprehension from the technical theory of "how it should work" to the hands-on "this is how it can or cannot work actually." Comprehension of the subject matter seems to be more noticeable when coupled with some sort of activity that either is directly hands-on or simulates the hands-on activity in such a way the learner is not able to challenge its authenticity. Virtual Reality allows educators to bring genuinely authentic lessons to the learner without the significant budget needed for the optimum laboratory equipment.

Conclusion

Engagement is not just something that happens when you physically interact with someone or when you dial into a Zoom live session. Engagement is the learner actively participating in the journey of seeking knowledge. The journey is not static or linear. It does not have a final destination. It is a continual process that builds on itself from one course or activity to the next. Learning in a virtual reality environment, for now, might just be a means to overcome limitations imposed by pandemic safety necessities. However, shortly, virtualization of classrooms could be the new normal.

References

Ogbuanya, T. C., & Onele, N. O. (2018). Investigating the Effectiveness of Desktop Virtual Reality for Teaching and Learning of Electrical/Electronics Technology in Universities. Computers in the Schools, 35(3), 226–248. https://doi-org.oclc.fullsail.edu/10.1080/07380569.2018.1492283

Reiser, R. A., Dempsey, J. V. (20170110). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, 4th Edition [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from vbk://9780134237015

Unknown (2020, May 21), ABC News 11 Education, "UNC students attend virtual reality classes as part of remote learning" [video post]. Retrieved from https://abc11.com/unc-virtual-reality-remote-learning-steven-king/6202031/